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Review: 'TIME BRINGS AGE'
'THE HOUSE OF ROSENTALL [EP]'   

-  Label: 'Dog Knights Productions'
-  Genre: 'Indie' -  Release Date: '14th December, 2010'

Our Rating:
He soon caught sight of a man - very well dressed, elegant even - who appeared just as the day's last light was fading. He wore a jacket and spread across his white shirt was a dark tie.
"Good evening, sir", said Jonas. "May I confide in you?"
"No-one has every confided in me," replied the man.


It is hardly surprising that this André Dhôtel quotation (from Le Soleil du Désert, which tells the story of a young boy's dream-like journey through a desert wonderland of weird and wonderful characters) features prominently on the Time Brings Age blog. "The House of Rosentall" EP, the first offering from the band, positively aches with a yearning for discovery, a clear sense of the fantastical, and a determined desire to dissimulate its reality. Just like Jonas - the little boy of Dhôtel's story - the protagonist conjured up by Alex Ives finds himself lost in a parallel world, this time of mountains, giant wasps, and a path that wind its way through a (different) desert. Yet, much like the nocturnal creations of our mind, "The House of Rosentall" remains frustratingly elusive, presenting only the occasional vivid image (to be found primarily in the scratchily lo-fi "Tired Lungs"), and offering absolutely no concession nor confession to the listener. The repeatedly murmured "I'm still lost" (from "This Desert Path Will Be Your Guide") proved - at least in this reviewer's case - crushingly veridical.

Born of grand ideas and concepts that reach far beyond our temporal consciousness, it's just a shame then that the music can't quite keep up. Indeed, for what remains nonetheless a musical project, the instrumental side of the EP plays an almost resolutely support role. Aside from the urgency of instrumental opener, "Sunshine Sam", proceedings remain emphatically low-key. "Tired Lungs" sways wearily, as Ives' heady world of giant wasps and short breaths curls and creeps like swirls of fading mist. As the story continues and Sam falls deeper into his alternate existence, the distinctly otherworldly "Synthesize Your Body" is awash with sinuous shoegaze guitars and slithering vocals so heavily treated that it sounds like they're being beamed from the dark side of the moon.

Indeed, "House of Rosentall" is not without a few nice touches. The brush of keys on both "Synthesize Your Body" and the similarly shoe-gazing but infinitely more foreboding "This Desert Path Will Be Your Guide", plus the title track's rich violin motif (all courtesy of Renee Bedell), show that Time Brings Age are not short of an idea or two in the musical department. But this keenly cultivated sense of mystery and a seemingly wilful avoidance of structure (or indeed anything else for the shipwrecked listener to cling on to) mean that you'll have to do a fair amount of work before the EP starts to pay it back. For the moment, there's little exchange, a state of play hardly surprising given the personal and conceptual nature of the project. More an intriguing curio than anything else, it promises more than it can perhaps deliver. Later instalments of the story may throw further light on this initial (but certainly not initiatory) EP, but as it is, it offers only fleeting glimpses of what Time Brings Age might have to offer. With no sense of revelation and certainly no promise of explanation, enjoyment in its purest sense may be at a premium. However, for those looking for something to really explore - and I mean to truly get lost in -, Time Brings Age's debut EP may be just the rabbit hole you've been looking for.

Time Brings Age on Bandcamp

Time Brings Age blog

Time Brings Age on MySpace
  author: Hamish Davey Wright

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TIME BRINGS AGE - THE HOUSE OF ROSENTALL [EP]